This year we celebrated Planet Ark National Tree Day (Sunday July 30th) with the Napoleans/Enfield Landcare Group, at Scotchman Lead, south of Ballarat VIC. This group have been working tirelessly to restore the indigenous vegetation along the banks of the Yarrowee River, south of the city of Ballarat.
Established in 1996 by Planet Ark, National Tree Day has grown into Australia’s largest community tree-planting and nature care event. The program is a call to action for all Australians to get their hands dirty and give back to their community.
The day was a magnificent success. Weather was good (if a little windy) with sunshine for the morning with rain predicted for the afternoon. Sixty people had turned up by 10.00am and by the time they stopped for lunch, 800 native trees and shrubs had been planted, guarded and hand watered.
Species planted included Silver Wattle, Black She-oak, Silver Banksia, Drooping She-oak, Manna Gums and River Red Gums, Hop Wattle, Prickly Moses, Sweet Bursaria, River Bottlebrush, Sticky Hop Bush, Bushy Needlewood and Prickly Tea-tree.
The plants were sourced from Matt Pywell from Ballarat WildPlants and were propagated from seeds collected in the immediate district of the planting. It is important that the seed collected occurs naturally in a specific region adapted to the environment, soil types, geology, rainfall and other flora and fauna which occurs in that region. Why is this important?
- The trees will have the best chance of successful establishment,
- They will provide a good food source for local fauna,
- They will help maintain the unique diversity that occurs in local areas.
More about the importance of planting indigenous trees here.
Thank you to everyone who made this day possible. Thank you to Jenny Ryle and Paul Duggan from the Napoleon Enfield Landcare Group, and their host of members and volunteers. To those who come early to lay out the gear and dig the holes thank you. And thank you also to those who provided lunch of hearty soups and homemade cakes, biscuits and slices.
We all love National Tree Day and we hope that you too had an opportunity to either go out tree planting or a the very least got out for a walk to admire and give thanks to your local trees. Of course, you don’t have to wait for National Tree Day to plant and appreciate trees. You can do that on any old day of the week!
And if you can’t go out to plant trees, let us do that on your behalf!
Writer: Colleen B. Filippa
With a background in Environmental Science, Colleen is the Founding Director of Fifteen Trees. In 2009, after 20 years in primary, secondary and tertiary education institutions, Colleen left the classroom to start the company. Fifteen Trees is a social enterprise assisting individuals and companies to reduce their carbon footprint by supporting community groups such as Landcare, schools and environmental networks.
